MLL News & Notes

Week 11 News & Notes

It’s the second to last week of the regular season and this week’s action begins and ends on Saturday night. Here is all you need to know as we enter week 11.

Two Down, Two to Go: Last Saturday, Boston and Denver clinched their spots in this year’s MLL Championship Weekend presented by Warrior. This Saturday, if Boston beats Denver, Boston will be the number one seed and Denver will be number two. Chicago and Long Island control their destinies. If Chicago wins over Chesapeake, they’ll clinch a playoff spot. If Long Island wins over Toronto, they’ll clinch a playoff spot. For Chesapeake, four is the magic number. If Chesapeake wins over Chicago by four or more goals, they will clinch a playoff spot. If they win by three or less, they’ll be in a good position to continue in post season play. Toronto will only be eliminated if they lose to Long Island (8 losses).

Week 10 Award Winners: Long Island’s Stephen Berger earned Offensive Player of the Week honors after a five goal performance including a last second two-pointer, for a total of six points in the Lizards win over Chesapeake. Boston’s goaltender, Kip Turner, was the Defensive Player of the Week for his standout performance, which helped the Cannons clinch the first spot in the 2010 Championship Weekend presented by Warrior. Turner made 16 saves and allowed 10 goals to Toronto in his 60 minutes in the cage. Denver’s Connor Martin’s MLL debut was good enough to garner Rookie of the Week honors. The attackman filled the void left by Drew Westervelt and Brendan Mundorf who were in England with the US National Team. Martin scored a hat-trick and added an assist in helping lead the way for Denver in a come-from-behind 15-11 win over the Chicago Machine.

Breaking Records: Matt Poskay scored five goals last weekend against Toronto. The midfielder is now the Cannons all-time goals leader, with 134 in his career, and single-season goals scored record holder with 39 on the season.

Record Watch Part I: Long Island’s Tim Goettelmann is within two goals of the MLL all-time record for scoring after a hat-trick performance against Chesapeake on Thursday night. Goettelmann currently has 245 goals in his 10-year MLL career just two behind Jesse Hubbard’s MLL record of 247. The Lizard already holds the league’s all-time records for games played (120) game-winning goals (13).

Record Watch Part II: Long Island’s Peter Vlahakis is 21 face-off wins from the MLL all-time record for face-off wins held by Paul Cantabene at 1,015. Vlahakis has won 995 face-offs in his career and now has two games to win 21 face-offs and break the record this season. He will face the Nationals’ Geoff Snider in both of the Lizards remaining games.

Boston’s Advantage: The Boston Cannons are in first place largely due to their 5-0 record at home this season. The team has never finished a season undefeated at home. They will go for 6-0 in week twelve when they host Chesapeake on Saturday August 7th.

Team USA V. Canada: Team USA brought the gold back from England and the FIL World Championships. The US defeated Canada 12-10 in the championship game. In the final, Paul Rabil (Boston) and Mike Leveille (Chicago) had hat-tricks, Ned Crotty (Chicago) and Brendan Mundorf (Denver) had two goals each, Ryan Powell (MLL Legend) and Matt Striebel (Chicago) scored for Team USA. For Canada John Grant Jr. (Toronto) had a hat-trick, Zack Greer (Long Island) scored two goals, while Garett Billings (Toronto), Kevin Cowley, Kevin Huntley (Toronto), Mark Steenhuis (Toronto) and Shawn Williams (Toronto) scored. The tournament MVP honors went to Paul Rabil who tallied 16 goals and 7 assists while playing for the US National Team in England.

Cast Your Vote: In honor of Major League Lacrosse’s 10 year anniversary, we want you to cast your vote for the MLL 10 Year Anniversary Team. Log onto www.majorleaguelacrosse.com to cast your vote for each position.

Live Blog and Chats: Follow every Major League Lacrosse game with our Live Blog and Chats presented by Warrior beginning 15 minutes before the start of each game at www.majorleaguelacrosse.com

Championship Weekend: Just a reminder that Major League Lacrosse Championship Weekend presented by Warrior will be in Annapolis, MD the weekend of August 21 and 22. For more information and tickets visit www.majorleaguelacrosse.com